Why is Buddhism the
fastest growing religion in Australia?
by Darren Nelson

The answer to this inquiry is multi-layered and
complex. It is a tantalising issue because it highlights the changing
spiritual landscape of Australia and provides an insight into just
how multicultural we have really become.

Cultures that were foreign to Anglo-European Australians
are now being adopted by some of them - though not without some dissenting
resistance. This level of resistance in Australian society can be
seen as a litmus test, used to measure future political and religious
tolerance in this country.

The story concerning the rise of Buddhism in Australia
is a compelling tale of a resilient religion that has survived despite
the odds. How is it possible for a 2,500-year-old philosophy, which
began five hundred years before Christianity and one thousand years
before the Muslim faith, to be relevant to modern life in Australia?
Considering all the other ancient religions that have faded from contemporary
practice, such as the sun worshippers of Ancient Egypt, the human
sacrifices of the South American Mayans and the Druids from the Dark
Ages of England, Buddhism has outlasted them all.

It does not preach the dogma of a strange cult,
nor seek converts with evangelistic fervour. Those Australians who
actively convert to Buddhism do so voluntarily, and are usually well-educated
middle-aged professionals who are attracted to a sense of inner peace.
This documentary therefore, seeks to immerse itself in the substance
of this seemingly magnetic Buddhist approach. Perhaps it will be like
seeing Australia for the first time, through ancient eyes.

It is interesting to note that in spite of the
recent increase in Buddhist numbers across Australia, Buddhism has
actually played a part in Australian history for some time. It did
not just suddenly arrive in a recent wave of migrants. Some anthropologists,
in fact, have suggested that Buddhism was possibly the earliest non-indigenous
religion to reach Australia before white settlement.

Between 1405 and 1433 the Chinese Ming emperor,
Cheng-Ho, sent sixty-two large ships to explore southern Asia. Although
there is evidence that several ships from that armada landed on the
Aru Islands to the north of Arnhem Land, it is not known whether they
reached the mainland.

One unproved hypothesis of Professor A.P. Elkin
is that the belief of some Northern Territory Koorie tribes in reincarnation,
psychic phenomena and mental cultivation is evidence of early contact
with Buddhists. Despite certain rock paintings that possibly depict
Chinese junks weighing anchor or images of the Buddha, actual material
evidence remains to be seen.

The first documented arrival of Buddhists in Australia
was in 1848 during the gold rushes, when Chinese coolie labourers
were brought into the country to work on the Victorian gold fields.
These workers represented a transient population that usually returned
home within five years. It was not until 1876 that the first permanent
Buddhist community was established by Sinhalese migrants on Thursday
Island. There the ethnic Sri Lankans built the first temple in Australia,
while they were employed on the sugar cane plantations of Queensland.

From the late 1870s onwards many Japanese
Shinto Buddhists also arrived and were active in the pearling industry
across northern Australia, establishing other Buddhist enclaves in
Darwin and Broome. Buddhist cemeteries were kept and festivals celebrated.
Official government statistics compiled as part of a national census
in 1891 indicate that, at the time, there were slightly more Buddhists
in Australia (at 1.2%), than there are today (at 1.1%).

Buddhist numbers would have continued to increase
if the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 had not been introduced
to combat the yellow peril. Alfred Deakin, who was destined
to be Prime Minister three times, drafted the legislation to pacify
a somewhat xenophobic Caucasian electorate. This bill later grew to
represent the more broadly implemented White Australia Policy.

For the next fifty years the benefits of mind
training and meditation, as taught by Buddhism, would be disregarded
as some sort of obscure eastern mysticism. Except for
some remote surviving pockets of Buddhists (such as Broome and Thursday
Island), the religion became virtually extinct in Australia.

A small group of committed western Buddhists formed
the earliest known Buddhist organisation in Australia, The Little
Circle of the Dharma, in Melbourne in 1925. Progress was slow though,
until after World War II when local enthusiasm for the White Australia
Policy began to decline. In 1951 the first Buddhist nun visited Australia.
Sister Dhammadinna, born in the USA, ordained and with thirty years
experience in Sri Lanka, came to propagate the Theravadin School of
Buddhist teaching. She received nation-wide media coverage.

Inspired by this visit, the next year the Buddhist
Society of New South Wales was formed under the presidency of Leo
Berkley, a Dutch-born Sydney businessman. This organisation is today
the oldest Buddhist group in Australia. Its membership was, and still
is, compromised mainly of people from Anglo-European backgrounds.

In 1958 the Buddhist Federation of Australia was
formed in order to co-ordinate the growing Buddhist groups that had
sprung up around the country in Western Australia, South Australia,
Queensland and Victoria.

The Buddhist presence in Australia had depended
for the first hundred years on lay people with only the occasional
visits by ordained members of the Sangha (the Buddhist clergy). But
in the 1970s the growing number of Buddhists created a need
for resident monks, and a new phase in Australian Buddhism began.

In 1971 the Buddhist Society of New South Wales
established the Sri Lankan monk, Somaloka, in residence at a retreat
centre in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. This became the first
monastery in Australia. A succession of monasteries representing different
aspects of Buddhism slowly became established around Australia; in
1975 at Stanmore in Sydney, in 1978 at Wisemans Ferry in country NSW
and in 1984 at Serpentine in Western Australia.

The charismatic face of Buddhism, the Dalai Lama,
(who was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in 1989 and describes himself
as a simple monk), has travelled the world constantly
giving lectures and answering questions in 20,000 seat pop concert
halls. John Cleese speaks out for him in London, Henri Cartier-Bresson
records his teachings around France and Adam Yauch of the Beastie
Boys pop group has even interviewed him in Rome for Rolling
Stone magazine.

In the past few years he has opened eleven Offices
of Tibet, everywhere from Canberra to Moscow and last year alone provided
prefaces and forewords for roughly thirty books. The 14th Dalai
Lama, who holds the titles of Ocean of Wisdom, Holder Of The White
Lotus and Protector Of The Land Of Snows, has even served as the guest
editor of French Vogue magazine.

The three visits of the Dalai Lama to Australia
in 1982, 1992 and 1996 were joyful occasions for Buddhists of all
traditions, and huge crowds of Buddhists and the general public gathered
to hear him speak. On the third visit, and despite virulent Chinese
protests, the Dalai Lama met with and was photographed with the Prime
Minister of Australia, John Howard. It was now clearly evident at
this stage, that Buddhism had become a significant minority religion
in Australia.

During this visit local celebrities contributed
generously to fundraising activities. For example, Kate Ceberano,
Rachel Berger and Frente were just some of the star-studded
cast to perform at the Dalai Lama Lounge Room. They helped to
raise $14,000 over three nights. Mushroom Records released a benefit
album called The Mantra Mix CD, featuring Jenny Morris, Jimmy
Barnes and Johnny Diesel. One local advertising agency, providing
their services for nothing, came up with the slogan "You missed
Jesus. You missed the Buddha. Do not miss the Dalai Lama". When
was the last time such hype accompanied the visit of a religious leader?

But Australians are not alone in their sympathy
towards his cause. The issue of Tibetan oppression has come to the
attention of Hollywood and with two new films about his life in the
cinematic pipeline, the Dalai Lamas profile has not only moved
into the mainstream, but has (much to the horror of the Chinese Government)
gone global.

The first to be released, Seven Years In Tibet,
tells the story of Heinrich Harrer, a mountain climber and Nazi party
member who encounters his own sense of enlightenment after becoming
the tutor to the young Dalai Lama in Tibet in the 1940s. The
film has attracted healthy attention because it stars Brad Pitt.

The other film is Kundun, directed by Martin
Scorcese. This epic tells the remarkable tale of the Dalai Lama from
his point of view, from his recognition as the reincarnated Buddha
of compassion at age two until his escape to India at twenty-four.
Recently released here in Australia, it was reviewed by Channel Nines
Sunday program on June 14th and described as the
most beautiful and important film released this year.

Hollywoods fascination for Buddhism extends
beyond these two screenplays, with many stars expressing interest
in the religion itself. In February 1997, the karate-kicking action
star Steven Seagall was recognised by the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan
Buddhism as the reincarnation of a 15th century lama. Adam
Yauch of the Beastie Boys pop group has organised two huge
benefit concerts to publicise the plight of Tibet.

Actor Richard Gere, together with Uma Thurmans
father, Richard Thurman, has opened Tibet House in New York, published
books on the subject, and meditates daily. Other practitioners that
have come to attention include Tina Turner, Harrison Ford (whose wife
Melissa Mathison wrote Kunduns script), Oliver Stone, Herbie
Hancock, Courtney Love, composer Philip Glass (who also worked on
Kundun) and REMs lead singer Michael Stipe.

The momentum of Buddhisms profile
is driven by other, more subtle reminders as well. A new make up is
being advertised as Zen Blush, a new sitcom is called Dharma
and Greg, a designer fruit juice container has on its label
"Please recycle this bottle. It deserves to be reincarnated too",
and monks star in television commercials and news items.

Such recent exposure does not take away the fact
that Australians have been quietly turning to Buddhism for some time.
The statistics compiled in the 1986, 1991 and 1996 Commonwealth Government
Census support the view that Buddhist numbers have been steadily increasing.
Between 1986 and 1991 the numbers of practitioners rose from 80,387
to 139,847, a growth of 74%. Due largely to the decrease in immigration
numbers in recent years the percentage growth for Buddhists slowed
between 1991 and 1996 to 43%, from 139,847 to 199,812. This rate of
increase is still higher than that of any other religion.

The three census surveys also indicate that of
the eight Christian denominations listed in the analysis for New South
Wales only three show an increase (Baptist, Catholic and Orthodox),
while five (Anglican, Church Of Christ, Lutheran, Presbyterian and
Uniting Church) have decreased in numbers.

Does the fluctuating demographic between Buddhism
and Christianity point towards dissatisfaction with traditional Australian
religious beliefs? Is Buddhism more competitive than Christianity
or is one spiritual experience simply more meaningful than the other?

Of the 199,812 Buddhists across Australia today,
approximately thirty thousand are Anglo-Europeans who have crossed
over, by choice, to this alternative philosophy. They have turned
from Christian sinner to Eastern Mystic. The
slump in immigration figures from Buddhist countries is apparently
not enough to stall the continued growth in Australian Buddhism, especially
now that local support has been established. Back in 1938 a Japanese
Shinto monk, noting that it took China three centuries to adopt Buddhism
from India, said introducing it in the West would be like holding
a lotus to a rock and waiting for it to take root.

When the Age of Aquarius spread across the world
in the form of the 60s alternative hippie counter-culture, there
appeared to be no shortage of poets, artists, actors, writers and
musicians interested in a voyage of inner peace through Buddhist philosophy
and meditative practices. John Lennon used Buddhist mantras
in the lyrics of his music such as Across the Universe. Allen
Ginsberg used a mantra (Buddhist blessing) to bless the ground at
Woodstock before the first fans arrived. Zen meditation too, first
embraced by the Beat poets in the 1950s flourished across first
world nations as a healthy alternative to LSD-induced enlightenment.

More importantly the drug-fuelled 1960s,
when the Vietnam War was at its height, feminist protestors burnt
their bras and man landed on the moon, saw a relaxation of traditional
middle class values that allowed a greater versatility in public consciousness.
During this time, people had greater access and freedom to experiment
with new schools of thought (feminism, civil rights, the peace movement,
alternative lifestyles etc) without suffering as many social ramifications
as in the past.

According to the Reverend Phillip Hughes, a Melbourne-based
religious researcher, "many people thought in the 1960s
that science itself was not sufficient to really explain existence,
but then they were not keen to go back to the Judeo-Christian tradition
with its holy books, miracles and so forth. Also the need for a sense
of peace has become more apparent".

Potential Buddhists are attracted to the Dharma
(Buddhist teachings) not only to take refuge from a world of chaos
and confusion, but also to re-invent their own personal sense of a
meaningful spirituality in a society of high-tech consumerism, commercialism,
violence and apathy. Compared to the Christian beliefs many Anglo-European
Australians grew up with, Buddhism does not require its adherents
to remain faithful to a specific dogma.

It is not a faith. It is not technically a religion
either, though when discussing systems of worship it is easier to
work with that label. It is more a psychology and a philosophy wrapped
around a moral code of mind training.

The founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama (born
in 563 B.C.), turned his back on the royal family he had been born
into, to live life as a simple ascetic monk. At the age of thirty-five
he became enlightened and saw things as they really are,
having achieved a mental state of absolute egolessness, where he no
longer felt any sense of narcissism or craving.

He became the first Buddha and was quick to teach
his disciples that he was not a god, should not be revered and no
rituals should be developed around his teachings. Heaven and hell,
he taught, are not external places that we travel to after we die;
they do not in fact exist. Rather, both places dwell only in the hearts
of people. People are either good or bad, pious or evil. Paradise
exists within our spirit, it is here and now, and not some destination
in the after-life.

Meditation, he believed, is the process required
for all adherents to achieve Buddhahood. This is one of the main differences
between Buddhism and other religions. Practitioners are offered an
ultimate goal, enlightenment itself, which is equivalent to the level
attained by the Buddha himself. He taught that everyone is capable
of achieving this, providing equality to all his followers.

This is a radical departure for born-Christians
to realise when they first start studying the principles of Buddhism.
The best a faithful Christian could hope to achieve with his devotion
was entry to heaven as an angel where he is still subject to the will
of a greater being who could smite him anytime at will. The Buddha
teaches his disciples too become the same as he, which is why he is
not a god. In Buddhism there is no pecking order in the after life,
because that would require the presence of an ego, which is the Buddhists
life work to gradually eliminate.

Buddhism dispenses with the notion of a Supreme
Being, as does science, and explains the origins and workings of the
universe in terms of natural law. All of this certainly exhibits a
scientific spirit. The Buddha advised that we should not blindly believe
him but rather question, examine, inquire and rely on our own experience.
This scientific approach of cause and effect was not overlooked by
Albert Einstein in the 1930s:

"The religion of the future will be a cosmic
religion", he said, "it should transcend a personal God
and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both natural and spiritual,
it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience
of all things, natural and spiritual, and a meaningful unity. Buddhism
answers this description. If there is any religion that would cope
with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism".

While the antipodean blossoming of Buddhism seems
to have gone from strength to strength since the 1980s, this
has not always been the case. It is in the Buddhist principle of godlessness
that the journalist can find opposing and dissenting voices to the
Buddhist cause. This theological bone of contention is the main source
of friction with other religions.

On Wednesday, the 18th of January 1995,
Pope John Paul II arrived in Sydney and attended an Interfaith Gathering
in the Sydney Domain. Representatives from major religions, including
Protestant, Orthodox and Coptic Christians, Jewish and Muslim were
invited to share the platform with him. Notable by its absence was
Australias third largest religion, Buddhism.

The organisers told SBS Radio that they were unaware
that Buddhism was Australias third largest religion and
besides that there was no national leader of Buddhism, so who were
they to invite? The Sydney Morning Herald reported that "somebody
in the State Government had forgotten to invite the Buddhists".
This is unlikely, as the New South Wales Government is very aware
of the presence of Buddhists in this state and often invites Buddhist
representatives to State functions. A more likely explanation is that
the Vicar of Rome holds Buddhism in very low esteem as is evident
from the following extract from his book, Crossing The Threshold
Of Hope:

"Buddhism is in large measure an atheistic
system. We do not free ourselves from evil through the good which
comes from God; we liberate ourselves only through detachment from
the world, which is bad. The fullness of such a detachment is not
union with God, but what is called nirvana, a state of perfect
indifference with regard to the world. To save oneself means, above
all, to free oneself from evil by becoming indifferent to the world,
which is the source of evil. This is the culmination of the spiritual
process. Christian mysticism is born of the Revelation of the living
God. This God opens Himself to union with man, arousing in him the
capacity to be united with Him, especially by means of the theological
virtues - faith, hope and above all, love".

Graeme Lyall, Chairman of the Buddhist Council
of New South Wales, strongly refutes the Catholic position. "The
Oxford Dictionary defines atheism as disbelief in
the existence of God ", he said, "the Buddha is described
as the teacher of gods and men, so how can Buddhism be
an atheistic system? Religious arguments often come down to the use
of religious language. We must ascertain to what we are referring
to when we use the term God.

What is a living God? Anything that
is living is subject to death and decay, so why should we place ourselves
in the hands of something, which, like ourselves, is impermanent?
If he is referring to the old man with a white beard who sits in the
sky taking notes in his little black book ready for the day of judgement,
then he is out of step with modern theological thinking and most other
theologians.

Modern theologians, such as Paul Tillich, suggest
that the term God refers to the ground of being
- the very fact of existence. No Buddhist would argue with this, but
they may be reluctant to use the term God to describe
it".

Lays implication that the Pope is out of
touch appears to be more than just a knee-jerk defence, when you consider
that the ranks of Catholics themselves are split on the issue. Irish-born
Father William Johnston, a Jesuit priest, spoke of his sympathy to
Buddhism when he visited Sydney in early January 1997. Here to attend
the Religion, Literature and Arts Conference at the Australian Catholic
University, Father Johnston spoke of the Christian churches need to
introduce aspects of Eastern Mysticism - such as meditation, yoga
and Zen - if they want to increase numbers attending weekly services.

"Some Catholics are very nervous about meditation
but there is a lot to learn from it and yoga and Zen", he said.
"The Catholic Church has always kept meditation very strongly
in its religious orders; our problem is that we didnt teach
it to the laity, who are now looking for it".

Father Johnston, director of the Institute of
Oriental Religions at Tokyos Sophia University, has lived in
Japan since 1951 and believes Christianity has become too legalistic,
with too many dos and donts and not enough vision
and enlightenment.

Besides the Catholic Churches potentially
bilateral reaction to Buddhism, local opposition to the arrival of
Eastern Mysticism has also occurred in the steel manufacturing town
of Wollongong, an hours drive south of Sydney. There the Anglican
Bishop of Wollongong, the Reverend Reg Piper has weighed into the
debate expressing his annoyance not only at the presence of Buddhism,
but the presence of a philosophy he sees as evil.

The contest began when a Taiwan-based Buddhist
sect, Fokuangshan, opened a huge fifty million-dollar temple just
south of the steel city in Berkley. The monks there planned to promote
their style of humanistic Buddhism, which emphasises the
oneness and co-existence of the global village.

The Fokuangshan sect was founded in the mid-1960s
and has more than one hundred branches world-wide (including Brisbane,
Melbourne and Perth) with 1.5 million members and its own university,
several schools, an organ donor bank, a retirement home, even a cemetery.
This growth is due to its charismatic founding father, the Venerable
Hsing Yun. The size of the Wollongong temple, called Nan Tien, is
second only to their headquarters in Taipei.

Bishop Pipers concerns are not shared by
other Christian churches such as the local Uniting Church, which has
adopted a user-friendly approach to the temple. On Tuesday, the 18th
of June 1996, Bishop Piper appeared on the ABCs 7.30 Report
to voice his opposition.

Bishop Piper:
See when you have the bible view of humankind, generally, if it is
outside the framework of the truth - the bible terms it as evil.

Reporter: Is
it a deception?.

Bishop Piper:
In that respect, yes. While ever it is not based in the truth of Christ,
it would be a deception. Because Buddhism is basically an atheistic
religion. There is no god.

Reporter: Why
is that a problem?.

Bishop Piper:
Because God has revealed himself through Christ. Christ has been raised
from the dead. He said he is God. There is no other way to the truth
and no other way to really live except through Christ.

The growing curiosity about Buddhism has so worried
Bishop Piper that he has made a video called In Search Of Paradise
- A Biblical Response To Buddhism. It is to warn all Christians
of the evil deception of Buddhism, that has arrived to convert them.

Reverend Shin of the Nan Tien temple remains perplexed
with Bishop Pipers attitude. "We dont convert people to
Buddhism or change their religion", he said. " As long as
they feel comfortable with any of the practices or any of the beliefs
and it is good for the society, good for them and good for the family,
that is the most important thing. Whether they decide to become Buddhists
or not - that is not our concern".

Local opposition to Buddhism also extends beyond
the Christian clergy. A survey by the Federal Office Of Multicultural
Affairs, conducted in 1988, found that 41% of the general population
did not wish to have a Buddhist as a workmate. Only Muslims fared
worse.

Despite this, on Sunday 8th February
this year Australian Buddhists were delighted to learn they had a
friend in a high place when the Governor-General, Sir William Deane,
expressed his support at the opening of the Rahula Community Lodge
in Canberra.

"A report from the Bureau of Immigration,
Multicultural and Population Research a couple of years ago, showed
that over the ten years to 1991 Buddhism was by far the largest growing
religion in our country: an increase in the order of some 300%"
he said. "To a significant extent, of course, the figures reflect
the substantial increase in migration from south-east Asia over that
period.

But the second largest national group were Australian-born
Buddhists - many from non-Asian cultures attracted by both the philosophy
and the practice of Buddhism, with its emphasis upon the search for
inner peace and understanding. I offer my very best wishes for the
success of all that you hope to achieve in the years ahead as future
stages of the centre are completed. May all your endeavours prosper
and bring joy to those whom they are intended to help".

Buddhism continues to maintain a steady trickle
of recruitment at the grass roots level. According to the Venerable
Pannyavaro, a monk based in Surry Hills in Sydney, young people are
still attracted to Buddhism because they are looking for an alternative
to established Christian churches and they can explore Buddhism without
feeling obliged to join.

"A lot of young people in the twenty to mid-thirty
age group are coming because they dont feel imposed upon",
he said, " and there are deeper meditative techniques they can
draw upon". The Buddhist website he operates (http://www.buddhanet.net)
gets an average 50, 000 hits a day. Venerable Pannyavaro
offers cyber-nirvana at this site in the form of online meditation
sessions where people can log on, meditate and contemplate the infinite.

There are now more than ninety Buddhist temples
and organisations in New South Wales, sixty-five of them in Sydney.
The bulk of the two hundred people who each week visit the Buddhist
Library, Meditation and Information Centre in Camperdown in Sydney
are in the thirty to fifty age group. About eighty-percent are from
a non-Asian background.

Much to the horror of the Christian clergy (if
they ever find out), Buddhism is even being taught in one New South
Wales primary school during religious scripture classes. In early
1995 at Blackheath Primary School a group of parents approached the
principal, Kate Allan, asking the school to provide Buddhist instruction
as well as the traditional Catholic and Protestant options. Now, forty-five
of the schools three hundred and fifty students attend classes in
Buddhism.

"The move came from the community",
Allan says. "In the mountains we have quite a diverse community
and it was the choice of the parents to have these classes - it was
not something imposed on the whole school".

Answering the question of Buddhism's
growing popularity in is clearly going to be a rich and involved
conclusion. This religion seems to have, at first glance, a vigorous
influence on the world stage. Just when you think you have examined
the issues thoroughly, you suddenly discover that you are still
only looking at the tip of the iceberg.